Mini-bio
She was born on 25 April 1933 in Florence. Never a surname was less apt ("Mal fatti" in italian means "badly done"): blonde, tall, of classic beauty and a little austere, long and beautiful legs, with an aristocratic bearing and a Nordic charm, even for the severe and somewhat cold look.
She cultivates a passion for acting from a young age, and when seventeen she's attending the acting school of René Simon at the Cours d 'Art Dramatique in Paris. Later she graduated from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome (in the 1958).
To discover her as a prose actress is Arnoldo Foà, but if the theater will be her true passion, it is thanks to the cinema and above all to the TV, that she will become one of the most famous faces of the Italian show.
The silver screen discovered her in 1959 with Le cameriere of Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia. She gets the first important parts in the film Un uomo da bruciare (1962) by Valentino Orsini, I fuorilegge del matrimonio (1963) by the Taviani brothers and in the film by Giuliano Montaldo Una bella grinta (1965).
She made her debut on the small screen in the 1966 with the RAI series Le inchieste del commissario Maigret, with Gino Cervi, in the episode "The Chinese Shadow", followed by the successful series Sherlock Holmes, the TV movie Dal tuo al mio (1969) by Mario Landi, taken from a text by Verga, for which she was awarded the "Premio Verga", but above all she obtained a resounding success in the role of the marquis Marina del Malombra, in Malombra (1974), a drama from the novel of Fogazzaro.
She starred in her first thriller, In fondo alla piscina (1971), with Carrol Baker and directed by the Spanish director Eugenio Martin: one of those lucky Italian-Spanish co-productions that made the fortune of European cinema. In the early seventies she will be much sought in genre cinema and the reason is easy to say: with her skill she elevates the quality of the film, while with beauty she entertains a wider audience. She attended specially the vein of giallo/thrillers (La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba - 1971, La dama rossa uccide sette volte - 1972 by E. P. Miraglia, Tutti i colori del buio - 1972 by Sergio Martino, Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso - 1972 by Umberto Lenzi, Il prato macchiato di rosso - 1973 by Riccardo Ghione, Un fiocco nero per Deborah - 1974 by Marcello Andrei), becoming a true icon of this particular genre of Italian cinema.
From the mid-seventies she progressively distanced herself from the silver screen, turning her art to the theater, reserving some sporadic returns to the TV. On the stage she interprets many classics, but not only (Moravia writes for her "La cintura"), and becomes a diva of the Italian theaters, like Anna Proclemer and Valeria Morriconi, but surpassing them in beauty, and in 1983 her interpretation in "Elettra" earned her the "Maschera d’Argento" award.
In the nineties she joins in an artistic association with Luigi Squarzina, with whom he puts on the works of Pirandello, Goldoni, Cocteau and Shaw, to enhance her, especially in dramatic roles.
In the 2000s she brought to the stage several works including "Sorelle Materassi" (2006), "Gallina vecchia" by Maccarinelli (2007) and finally her latest performance: "Va dove ti porta il cuore" (2008).
Long withdrawn from the scene and from public life, especially since she was widowed by the ambassador Umberto La Rocca, from whom she had no children, she gone silently at the age of 83, on 8 June 2016 in Rome.
Filmography
- C'era una volta .... Olimpia Capecelatro, princess of Altamura (credited)
- Pronto... c'è una certa Giuliana per te .... Annalisa (credited)
1971 - La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba .... Gladys Cunningham (credited)
1972 - Il ritorno di Clint il solitario .... Norma Murrayson (credited)
- La dama rossa uccide sette volte .... Franziska Wildenbrück (credited)
- Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso .... Kathy Adams (credited)
- Tutti i colori del buio .... Mary alias Celia Morgan (credited)
1973 - Il prato macchiato di rosso .... Nina Genovese (credited)
1974 - Malombra (TV mini-series) .... Marquis Marina del Malombra (credited)
- Un fiocco nero per Deborah .... Deborah Lagrange (credited)
Marina Mulligan is the pseudonym of Marina Rabissi, the ex wife of Carlo Croccolo (director of Black Killer), not of Marina Malfatti, that in fact doesn't appear at all in these movies that someone had listed on IMDb:
- Black Killer (1971)
- Una pistola per cento croci! (1971)
Listed by someone on IMDb, but she doesn't appear at all:
- Era Sam Wallash!... Lo chiamavano... E così sia (1971) .... Marge (uncredited)
- Le cameriere (1959) .... Venerina
- Una ragazza per l'estate (1960) .... L'étrangère
- Un uomo da bruciare (1962) .... Wilma
- I fuorilegge del matrimonio (1963) .... Rosanna
- Una bella grinta (1965) .... Luciana's friend
- Io, io, io.... e gli altri (1966) .... Model
- Le inchieste del commissario Maigret (TV Series) - Ep. "L'ombra cinese" (1966) .... Nina Moinard
- Missione Wiesenthal (TV Movie, 1967) .... Anne Marie Mistelbach
- Sherlock Holmes (TV mini-series, 1968) - ep. "L'ultimo dei Baskerville" - 1st, 2nd, 3rd parts .... Beryl Stapleton
- Più tardi Claire, più tardi... (1968)
- Amori senza amore (TV series, 1968) - ep. "Amori senza amore" .... Cristina Viola
- Dal tuo al mio (TV Movie, 1969) .... Lisa
- I dannati della Terra (1969) .... Luciana
- Die Welt des Pirandello - Liebe! - Liebe? (TV Movie, 1970) - segment "Wenn man das Spiel kennt" .... Christina Viola
- Doppio gioco (TV Movie, 1971) .... Francoise
- In fondo alla piscina (1971) .... Julie Spencer
- Per amore o per forza (1971) .... Nora
- Decameron n° 3 - Le più belle donne del Boccaccio (1972) - segment "The Jealous Husband" .... Wife of Jealous Husband
- Testa in giù, gambe in aria (1972)
- Alexander Zwo (TV Series, 1972-1973) - ep. "Ping Pong", "Zum Abschuß freigegeben", "Gefährliche Heimkehr" .... Sonja
- Il clan del quartiere latino (1973) .... Isabelle Maury
- Il figlio di Zorro (1973) .... Carmen (uncredited)
- La notte dell'ultimo giorno (1973) .... Francesca
- Il venditore di palloncini (1974) .... Maria
- Lezioni di violoncello con toccata e fuga (1976) .... Stella Brega
- L'ultimo aereo per Venezia (TV Mini-Series, 1977) - eps. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 .... Irene Oro
- Il fauno di marmo (TV mini-series, 1977) .... Miriam
- Il prigioniero (TV Movie, 1978) .... Nadia Zamboni
- Racconti di fantascienza (TV Series, 1980) - ep.: "I sosia" .... Marta
- Anna Kuliscioff (TV mini-series, 1981) .... Anna Kuliscioff
- Teresa Raquin (TV mini-series, 1985) .... Teresa Raquin
- Silvia è sola (TV Movie, 1988) .... Silvia
- La signora Morlì, una e due (TV Movie, 1991)
- Un posto freddo in fondo al cuore (TV Movie, 1992) .... Giulia Mussi
- A rischio d'amore (TV Movie, 1994) .... Chiara
- Come prima, meglio di prima (TV Movie, 1995) .... Fulvia Gelli